INTRODUCTION:
How do we identify ourselves?
• By our name? By our job?
• By our income level?
• We can be accomplished and have many people admire us and gain a positive reputation.
However, that doesn’t mean we won’t still wonder who we really are.
Illustration
Take Nicole Kidman. She is an accomplished, well respected actress who can earn over 15 million dollars per film and yet here is a woman who has been quoted as saying, “I don’t know who I am, or what I am, or where I’m headed.”
So we see that worldly success does not gain for us a meaningful identity. We may still be left wondering who we really are. Having an identity crisis is especially problematic if you’re a Christian.
Identity theft. Identity theft is a big problem in society today. It’s an even bigger problem when we’re dealing with spiritual identity theft.
Satan tries to steal our identity.
John 10:10
Jesus said ‘that Satan’s purpose is to steal, kill and destroy’. One of the things Satan wants to steal is our identity in Christ.
Satan even went after Jesus’ identity.
Matt 3:16-4:7.
Jesus had just heard his Father say, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Now, we hear Satan saying to Jesus, “IF you are the Son of God”. Satan was tempting Jesus to doubt his identity. He wanted to get Jesus to do certain things to confirm his identity. Jesus didn’t fall for it. God can confirm to us, “You are my child”. But Satan will be right there disputing that. Satan wants us to doubt. If we do, we are tempted to test God to see if he really loves us, to see if we are really protected by him, to see if we are really his.
What is your identity?
The world would have seen you and would have given you different identity,
• the world would have called you sinner
• the world would have called you cheater
• The world would have called you a thief.
But Jesus removes the worldly identification and calls you son / daughter.
What is your identification today?
Genesis 32:27-28
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
What is your identification today?
Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
What is your identification today?
You are the Children of God
1 John 3:1-3
1Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
2 Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if [a]he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is.
3 And every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure
